The system of the present invention relates to an electronic system and method for tuning frequency controlled devices.
At the present time it is sometimes necessary or useful to determine the frequency of a received broadcast signal and to tune a radio broadcast transceiver to the same frequency. For example, if one wishes to "jam", i.e., disturb, the radio communication, between enemy troops, one must first find the frequency upon which they are broadcasting and then tune a radio transmitter to the same frequency and broadcast a noise to drown out their messages. This can be done manually by turning the dial of a radio receiver until it receives an enemy broadcast seeing the frequency, on a dial, at which the broadcast is made and manually tuning the jamming radio transmitter to the same frequency.
This procedure has many limitations. It is slow, so that the enemy may be able to complete its message before the jamming broadcast is initiated. It depends upon the skill of the personnel; the frequency may be misjudged if the personnel is unskilled, and skilled personnel may be unavailable or busy on other tasks. It can only be used with relatively long-range enemy broadcasts because the receiving and transmitting radios should be well behind friendly lines.
Some of these difficulties have been addressed by electronic devices which automatically detect the frequencies being utilized by an enemy and automatically tune a jamming radio transmitter to that frequency. An example of such a system is the military TLQ-17A Set-On Jammer which is described in Technical Manual TM-06241A-12. Such automatic devices may operate rapidly and without the attention of skilled personnel. However, generally such automatic devices have been relatively complex, expensive and burdensome to transport.